


A Choking Haze of Grey

by DizzyDrea



Category: Numb3rs
Genre: Character Death, Family, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-01-15
Updated: 2012-01-15
Packaged: 2017-11-05 03:40:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 301
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/402058
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DizzyDrea/pseuds/DizzyDrea
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Don and Charlie are all they each have left.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Choking Haze of Grey

**Author's Note:**

> Written for [numb3rs100](http://numb3rs100.livejournal.com/) Prompt #350 – Gag
> 
> I humbly beg your forgiveness in addvance. I don't know what I was thinking. I sat down to write something light and humorous, and this is what came out. Clearly, my muse has not heard about my visceral aversion to angst, because this is angst to the nth degree. I killed a character! I never do that! Well, almost never. Still!
> 
> Originally posted on LiveJournal.
> 
> Disclaimer: Numb3rs belongs to The Barry Schindel Company, Scott Free Productions, CBS Television Studios and a lot of other people who aren't me. I'm doing this for fun and for practice. Mostly for fun.

~o~ 

Don is gagging, the acrid smoke choking his lungs, his eyes watering, but he pushes on. When he'd pulled up outside the Craftsman, the fire had already consumed part of the house, but he'd gone in anyway. Charlie is in there somewhere. 

He reaches the garage, which the fire hasn't begun to devour. The doorknob is hot, and for just a second he hesitates. But he's gotten no answer on Charlie's phone, and he's dialed half a dozen times already. 

Yanking his jacket off, he uses it to cover his face and hands as he turns the knob. He drops to the floor and crawls into the room. He wants to cry out, but he doesn't have the breath, his only hope that Charlie has remembered the fire drills from when they were kids. 

He can't see, so he's surprised when his arm bumps into something that shouldn't be there. He reaches out and his fingers encounter soft curls and warm skin. A sigh of relief turns into a coughing fit. He gathers up his brother's body, carrying him outside. 

They collapse in a heap on the grass, and Don can hear the fire engines arriving. Charlie stirs in his arms, and he holds his brother through the coughing and sputtering. 

"Dad—" 

"His car is gone, Charlie," Don croaks out. 

Charlie shakes his head. "Car's in the shop. He's upstairs!" 

Don freezes, pain searing his heart as he turns his head to see the entire structure burning. If their father is in there, he's dead by now. 

Charlie struggles to rise, to find their father, but Don's hold tightens. Finally, Charlie relents, subsiding into heaving sobs. Tears run down Don's face as the pain settles into a dull ache in his heart. 

He pulls Charlie closer. They're orphans now. 

~Finis


End file.
